


The Crack of the Whip

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: The Red Paladin's Double [12]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Some Fluff, Some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9438833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: When diplomacy turns to war with old ghosts the paladins must save the day.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is slightly weird, just warning.

            Shiana sat bolt upright in her bed. The darkness was back. He was having a nightmare. She reached out mentally through the darkness for Shiro’s mind Except it wasn’t Shiro’s mind. It was Keith’s. She shoved her way in.

            “-Teach you to tell me no!” Shiana sucked in her breath. She was in a kitchen, an eleven-year-old Keith on the floor, a man holding a belt while a woman was calling on a phone for help. The belt was brought down, changing into a whip, the man to a Galra, the woman to Shiana’s own mother, the kitchen to an arena. Keith himself was the age Shiana knew him. The blow connected and Keith was eleven in the kitchen again, whimpering on the floor. Shiana felt sick. She’d seen enough.

            “Excuse me?” She tapped the man on the shoulder. Keith looked up hopefully. “I need to talk to Keith, so please go back to being a figment of his subconscious.” The man’s mouth turned to an O of surprise as he, the woman and the kitchen dissolved. Keith sat up, the belt mark gone, back to his normal age.  Everything was black around them. Shiana sat down, cross-legged on the ground.

            “Okay. What was that.”

            “It was just a nightmare,” Keith replied, embarrassed. “It’s no big deal.” She looked at him sharply.

            “How often do these nightmares happen?”

            “Not often.”

            “Keith Kogane! Stop lying to me! Let’s look at your memories, shall we?” A hologram screen much like the one Allura used to input coordinates for the wormhole appeared. She put her hands on the small glowing balls and memories started playing across the screen. Keith watched himself grow up. They got to a particularly embarrassing memory and he stood up abruptly.

            “Oookay. Going through Keith’s memories time is over. Show’s over, move along. And how do you know my last name?” He shooed her away from the controls.

            “Lance told me. How often do you have these nightmares?” she repeated.

            “Me and Lance need to have a lesson about oversharing.” He sighed. “They started after I left that family. Every night. They stopped, but about a year ago they started again. Not a lot, just every so often.”

            “When Shiro disappeared.” It wasn’t a question.

            “Yes. Then after captivity… It’s been happening every other night.”

            “How come I didn’t know?” She was talking to herself, so Keith didn’t bother responding. “I’ve been on the lookout for nightmares for a while now, I should’ve caught it. Was I too focused on Shiro?”

            “They haven’t been bad. Tonight was just worse.”

            “Grr. This is frustrating. If you have more nightmares, tell me. I can help.”

            “You’re staying up all night again, aren’t you?”

            “What? Why is that important? We’re not talking about me.” He took her hands in his.

            “You need to get sleep sometime. Promise me.”

            “Only if you promise me that you’ll come alert me when you have a nightmare.” His mouth opened, before abruptly shutting again. She looked at him sadly. “That’s what I thought.” She shook her head and faded away, leaving Keith in the darkness of his own mind.

            Shiana opened her eyes. So that was what he’d been hiding from her on the ice planet. It didn’t matter. Everything would be fine. She just had to hold on. Tomorrow would be better.

            “AHHHHHHHH!!! WE’RE SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL!”

            “I know! Hold on!” Shiana pulled the red lion upright and looked at her passenger. “Happy?”

            “No! They’re firing on us again!” Shiana grumbled and the red lion banked hard to the right, going into another roll to avoid laser fire.

            “You fly worse than my sister, and she’s five!”

            “With all due respect, your majesty, your sister didn’t have a Galra fleet on her.” Shiana closed her eyes for a moment. _Why, why, Keith? Why did you have to wake up a bunch of angry ghosts?_ Her mind played back on what had happened.


	2. Chapter 2

“We formally welcome you, Voltron. We hope that the rest of the planet will join us in the fight.” Keith restrained from pulling at the collar of his itchy shirt. He still didn’t see why they couldn’t just wear their armor to diplomatic meetings. Allura graciously nodded.

            “I hope so as well. Thank you for your hospitality.”

            ‘The other dignitaries have not yet arrived. We have prepared rooms for you, and we hope your stay will be comfortable.” Six servants came and motioned for the paladins to follow, which they did.

            Shiana paced the floor. She hated this room already. It was nice, but everything looked breakable and expensive. She hated breakable and expensive things. She always had to be careful. There was absolutely nothing to fiddle around with, and nothing to read. She was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. She opened the door and looked around. Good. No servants to tell her she couldn’t leave. She saw Lance exiting his room at the same time. He sneaked past her room.

            “Going somewhere?” He jumped about a foot into the air and she laughed “Chill, I’m not going to hurt you.” He smoothed his hair.

            “I wasn’t scared. I just wanted to be courteous and let you revel in thinking you scared me.”

            “Liar. Where are you going?”

            “Anywhere but there. I got bored.”

            “Betcha Keith is already exploring.”

            “Ooo, I bet he is. He would try to beat me to it.”

            “No, he wouldn’t.” Keith’s dark head was poking out of a door down the hall. “He would be staying where he is supposed to for once. Also you are yelling and he can hear you.” He exited his room and joined them.

            “What are you doing?”

            “Going to bother Shiro, probably.” Keith pointed to the room next to his.

“Right there. Pidge and Hunk are already in there. I’m bored too. Let’s go.” They entered the room Keith had specified. True enough, Pidge and Hunk were there.

“What are you doing here?” Shiro sounded exasperated, just like a father, or an older brother.

“Finding you,” Shiana replied cheerfully, “We got bored.” Shiro rubbed his temples.

“Why can’t you guys stay in one place for once in your lives?” Keith flopped into a chair, which Lance immediately started arguing with him over. Shiro squeezed his eyes shut. Shiana stretched out on the floor next to Pidge, who handed a book to her.

“Can you read this? I don’t know this language.” Shiana took a peek.

“Oh, yeah, this is Neconian.” She opened it and began to read. Keith and Lance’s argument had progressed from arguing over the actual chair to just arguing.

“-Yeah, well I’m Shiana’s favorite!” Shiana looked up from her book.

“No you’re not, Hunk is.” Both boys stopped and looked at her. Keith looked like a lost puppy.

“What?”

“Hunk’s my favorite.” Hunk looked up.

“Really?”

“Yup.”

“Am I your second favorite?”

“Nah. Shiro and Pidge tie for that spot.” He drooped.

“I’m third right? Please tell me you don’t like _Lance_ more than me.”

“No, no. You’re third.” He puffed up. “Buuut, you’re tied with Lance.” Lance sidled by.

“Bet she actually likes me more and just doesn’t want to hurt your feelings,” he whispered under her breath. That was it. Another fight broke out and Shiana, laughing, put an arm around each of them.

“I’m just kidding, kidding, I’m messing with you. You’re all my favorites.” She ruffled their hair.

“But seriously, if I had to be with one of you in the middle of nowhere for a year I’d pick Hunk.” Lance and Keith sat down on either side of her, somewhat mollified.

“Hey, how about we play a game? Like a no rough and tumble, just talking game,” he added as Keith opened his mouth to make a suggestion. The red paladin closed it, disappointed.

“Ooo, let’s try to predict what everybody is going to be like when they’re old.” That was Lance’s suggestion.

“That sounds like fun. Come on, Shiro!” The black paladin slid onto the floor next to them.

“Okay… I predict that Hunk is going to be that old person who hands out home baked goods and full sized candy bars for Halloween.”

“I predict that Lance will still flirt, and with younger girls, so they’ll slap him.” Lance leaned back.

“Yup. Absolutely.” Shiro’s turn.

“I predict that when people hit balls into Pidge’s yard they’ll be instantly incinerated so that nobody comes to bother her.” Keith.

“Shiro will be the old grandpa that tells all of the kids in the neighborhood stories and shows them his metal arm so they all freak out.” Shiana could understand the game now.

“Keith is going to be the old man who shakes his cane at birds and goes ‘get off my lawn you freeloading hobos!’” She rolled on the ground, giggling at her own prediction. Lance cracked up too. Keith just frowned.

“I will not!”

“Oh, yes you will, alien boy. Hunk? What’s my prediction?” Hunk thought a moment.

“You’re going to be the old grandma who always knows when the children are misbehaving because of your powers, but you tell them you have eyes in the back of your head.” Shiana cracked up laughing again.

“Yeah… Yeah, that sounds about right. That was fun.” Shiro looked out the window.

“Others are arriving! Negotiations are going to start! Alright team, at least _try_ to look presentable.” The five teens looked at him from where they were on the ground.

“Why?”

“Because looking nice is important in diplomacy. Now scram.” Keith wandered off muttering something about a hairbrush and Lance and Hunk followed. Shiro took Shiana back to her room and found, of all horrors,

“Makeup?!”

“Yes. You are the one person besides Allura that looks like a girl, and you are going to play that up.” Shiana made a face.

“Don’t give me that attitude, young lady!”

“Yes, Dad,” Shiana replied sarcastically, but smiling. He pointed a finger at her, also smiling.

“Careful, or I might decide you’re not too old for spankings.” She grinned and sat on a stool while Shiro applied makeup.

“Where did you learn this,” she asked as he applied eyeliner, “Last I checked, most boys on earth don’t wear makeup.”

“My mom taught me, in case I didn’t get married, but adopted a girl. Also, I was in drama club as the makeup crew leader. Of course I can apply makeup.” He finished and brushed her hair, careful of her braids. The brush caught on the chain of her necklace, which was a sun pendant.

“What’s this?”

“It’s from my Altean ancestor. He was married before he came to my planet.  His wife had the moon, and the moon clicked around the sun. It was symbolic of how their love eclipsed the sun.” Lance sighed dramatically behind them.

“That’s sweet.”

“Aww, Lance, do you like romantic stories?” He turned red.

“No. No, no, no. Me? Love romantic stories? No, I am the romance story. Nope, not me.” She got off the stool and walked to him.

“I think it’s cute.” She pecked him on the cheek and walked away. Lance turned an even brighter red and Shiro laughed.

“Better than a tentacle kiss, Lance?” His eyes widened and he stammered.

“I-ah-uh-huh.” Shiro laughed again and patted him on the back.

“It’s ok. I won’t tell.”

Keith shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Diplomacy was boring. There was absolutely _no_ point. They should just agree to let Voltron help them in order to keep them safe and move on. Why was there all this arguing? Most of the countries had agreed, only a couple still said no. Keith had thought he’d been about to be attacked by a tiger earlier, but it turned out that the more the people here aged the more they looked like cats. Good thing he hadn’t had his bayard. He wondered if Buzz was related. Quiznek, why were they still _talking_?! Why was it so hard to say yes? One of the princesses from one of the refusing countries made a face at him. He made one back. Shiana kicked him in the shin. Quiznek, that hurt! For someone in a dress, she sure could kick hard. She had been great earlier, though, talking to the embassies, laughing, greeting them cheerfully. He was 99.9% certain that at _least_ half of them had agreed because of her. He squinted at a couple of guards that were near the face-making princess. Was it just him, or did they seem a little… off?

He frowned. He was being paranoid. They were just guards. But he kept his eye on them, just in case. That was why he was ready when…

“Watch out!” Keith dove and tackled the tiny girl as one of the guards brought his sword down. He spun and punched one of the assassins when he got close. He went down, but Keith had forgotten the other one. His fist connected with Keith’s face and he felt his skin tear as the Galra’s ring cut his cheek. He reeled back, stunned by the blow, looking for a weapon. Of course, he didn’t even have his knife, because Shiana had said it wasn’t diplomatic to bring a knife to negotiations. Whatever. The cat-man who was hosting them called in his guards and they quickly wrestled the two assassins into submission. One of them glared at Keith.

“Traitor.” Keith stared coldly at him, ignoring his statement. He’d come to peace with who he was. He didn’t care what this Galra said. Shiana took him by the arm and gently led him away, while making apologies and excuses to the diplomats, along with her _sincerest_ wishes that the princess was okay.

“I’m fine, Shiana. It’s just a little cut.”

“It’s deep, and who knows what was on that ring?”

“I’ve faced worse injury.” She gave him the most annoyed look she could muster.

“Keith, I don’t care that you faced the stupid trials of Marmora, that doesn’t mean you should get beat up more.” She sat him on a bench and grabbed a surgical needle and thread. There was only one doctor in the medical room, but he could only examine patients and say what was wrong because his hands had turned into paws and he had claws.

“Who told you about the trials?”

“Lance.”

“I really do need to talk to him about telling girls everything. Ouch!” She finished the stitches.

“Do you just want to have scars on every square inch of your body?”

“No. Sharp things just seem to find me!”

“Well, hide better.” The father of the girl Keith had rescued strode in.

“Ah, red paladin. I wanted to thank you. You saved my daughter’s life.” Keith shrugged.

“Least I could do your majesty. After all, that’s what Voltron is about.” Shiana smiled to herself. While Keith might not be very diplomatic or subtle, he could sometimes pull off something sneaky like that, reminding the king that he was refusing more of this protection. The king nodded.

“I would like to ask you, if it isn’t too much trouble, to help me watch out for more assassins after my daughter. I would greatly appreciate it if you would guard her for the rest of my time here.” Shiana gave Keith a significant look, telling him to humor the guy so they could get him to agree.

“Of course your majesty.” The king smiled.

“Thank you. Oh, the negotiations are starting again. If you are done here…” He offered his arm to Shiana, who curtsied and took it.

“Thank you, your majesty.” They swept out of the room, letting the princess skip in.

“Hi! Hi! Hello! My name is Rommel!” compared to the stately grace of her father, this girl was a little blazing sun of energy. “You saved me earlier, cause those guys were like ‘rrgh!’ and you were like ‘no!’ and then they were like ‘ouch where’d this little tornado of purple come from?’ and you were like ‘ha!’ and they were like ‘nooo!” and it was _great_.” Keith blinked at her.

“Okay…”

“And I knew I was going to like you, because I made a face at you and you made one back instead of all the other diplomats who just freeze their faces in one expression.”

“Yes, well, Lance tells me I’m about as diplomatic as a starving rhinoceros.” She giggled.

“I don’t know what that is, but I bet it’s big and cranky and crosses its arms a lot like you.” Keith uncrossed his arms. “You want to play hide and seek?”

“Uh, no.”

“Why not?” _Because this works one of two ways_. _I hide and you ditch me, or you hide and I am looking for you and someone asks me what I’m doing and I say looking for the princess and they freak out._

“Because I don’t know where to hide. I’ve never been here before.” She drooped.

“Aww, that’s right. Ooo, we can explore! Then you will know the palace well enough to play later!”

“Alright. I guess so.”

“Come on, come on, come on!” She tugged on his hand and started showing him anything and everything. They entered a room where a jewel was sitting on a pedestal. The princess tripped, skinning her hand. Luckily, she bounced right back up. “Ooo, sparkly!” She picked up the jewel, her skinned hand still bleeding. The room shook slightly and Keith looked at the ceiling nervously.

“I think that we should leave now, Rommel.”

“OK.” She put the jewel back on the pedestal and walked out with him, closing the door behind them. As a result, neither of them saw the jewel start to glow.

Shiana’s head snapped up and she looked around. Suddenly more minds had appeared in this room. A senator was droning on about the risks of accepting Voltron’s help, but no one was actually listening to him. That was odd. No people had walked in, but suddenly she could hear extra minds whispering. Her eyes widened as one thought came crystal clear.

 _Princess. Must get Rommel._ Uh-oh. Shiana exited silently, waving off Lance’s questioning look. She ran for Keith and Rommel’s minds.

“Keith, watch out!” Keith blinked. What was Rommel talking about? She pulled him to the side. “Phew. You almost bumped into him”

“Princess, there’s nothing there.”

“Yes, there’s a big slave driver with a whip! You almost ran into him.” Keith felt a chill run down his spine. Probably just her overactive imagination, but did the whip have to haunt him in the day as well as the night?

“Are we pretending now? Because I’ve never been good at pretending games.” Rommel stomped her foot.

“No! I’m not pretending! There are a whole bunch of other people in here! And they keep looking at me funny. I don’t think they like me.” She hid behind Keith.

“Um, OK?” Shiana skidded to a halt on the balcony. Where had she come from?

“Keith! Duck!”

“Duck?” something invisible hit him in the face.

“Yes! Duck!” He obeyed this time and heard something whistle over his head.

“Move left! Right! Roll to the side! There are some invisible people here and they’re after Rommel! Duck again! Throw a punch to the right!” Keith did, and was surprised to feel his fist connect with something solid. What exactly was going on? There was a cackling in the air and, just like Rommel had said, a slave driver appeared. He cracked his whip and Keith froze. Whip. His mind flashed back to the arena.

“Keith! No!” the slave driver floated through the red paladin and he collapsed. Shiana jumped off of the balcony and scooped Rommel up in her arms at the same time punching another ghost, floaty thing. She grabbed Keith’s arm and dragged him along, out the door, slamming it behind her. What was going on here?

“Stop! Stop the meeting! We’re all in danger and we need to get out!” Shiana set an unconscious Keith on the ground. Rommel ran crying to an older boy who looked like her.

“What is the meaning of this!” Shiana spun to face the tiger-like leader.

“Your majesty, I need to know: do you have stories from your ancestors about them coming back to life?”

“Well, yes, but-”

“Well, it’s happening. There are a bunch of crazy ghosts out there and…” she stopped and looked around, a chill running down her spine. “and in here,” she finished softly. “They were waiting for Rommel to go crying to Dad.” A grinning specter appeared and he floated through Shiro, who collapsed, just like Keith.

“Get down!” Shiana tackled the person holding Rommel. The ghosts grabbed her, though, and she disappeared. The rest of the paladins collapsed as well and dignitaries from all over the planet followed. Shiana grabbed the wrist of the prince she’d saved and pulled him out of the room.

“Hey! Let me go! We have to help them!”

“We can’t! Do you really think that I would just abandon my friends if I could help them? There’s nothing we can do!” She ran to the red lion who growled in greeting. She ran inside and activated the particle barrier. She heaved a sigh of relief.

“They can’t get through that, I think. I think they can only float through organic matter. Sorry Prince…”

“Bandore. Prince Bandore. What is going on?!”

“I think those ghosts need your sister to stay alive, so they kidnapped her. But who cares about the rest of the people? They don’t need them.”

_Good job protecting Keith._

“Shut up you.”

“Excuse me?” Shiana pointed at the ceiling.

“Talking to her.”

“How did you know where they were and what they want?”

“Oh. Yeah… I’m physic. I can read their minds.” Bandore gasped.

“We kill people like you the moment they’re born!”

“Why?!” He shrugged.

“The ancients ordered it.”

“The same ancients that are trying to kill us that only I, a physic, can sense?”

“Oh. I guess if you put it that way…” A blast rocked the lion and Shiana looked up.  
            “What?! Okay, this is really, really, _really_ bad timing.” Galra ships appeared over the horizon. Shiana squinted at them.

“Is it just me, or do those ships look older than the ones there are now?” Bandore squinted too.

“I think you’re right. Why would that be?” Shiana’s eyes turned as big as they could.

“We came too late. Voltron is too late. The Galra took over this planet a long time ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rommel and Bandore were characters from the older Voltron who were opposed to Voltron but then joined them. My tribute to the original Voltron


	3. Chapter 3

Shiana patted the controls. “You want to take down an ion cannon, Red?” The red lion growled in assent and the jaw-blade formed. They flew and sliced through it, Shiana seeing a few memories of doing this with Keith, a pang of sadness which was quickly covered up. The ion cannon was down and Shiana crowed in triumph. Then ten more appeared over the horizon.

“You have _got_ to be kidding me.” And that was how she’d gotten into her current situation.

Shiana desperately flipped controls and shifted levers and the red lion barely dodged another blast. And then found itself looking right down the barrel of a cannon. The others had them surrounded

“Well, that’s not good.” She flipped a few more switches and the lion powered down, dropping below the cannons as a couple of them fired, smashing the cannon across from them. Shiana turned the lion back on again as they plummeted towards the planet, Bandore screaming, Shiana’s hair straight on end. The power flickered back on, barely managing to turn on the particle barrier before they slammed into the planet’s surface, bouncing once, twice, like a ball, and rolling. They halted as they ran into a cliff face, upside-down.

“Mission success,” Shiana groaned. The particle barrier turned off and Red fell to the ground on her back. “Ouch.”

Keith blurrily opened his eyes. Everybody was asleep! What had happened? He remembered the ghost and then nothing. The grinning slave driver appeared. Keith yelped and drew away.

“This one is awake!”

“Well, of course,” a voice yelled back, “He was the first to get hit. Get him again!” The slave driver grinned and went opaque again before floating through him. He fell back into the darkness again.

“You okay, Red?”

_Of course not. That was the worst landing that even you have ever made._

“Hey, at least you don’t have to rescue me every day from the vacuum of space.”

_True. I think next time he does that I will leave him out there._

“Uh, Shiana, could you focus on this instead of bickering with your lion?”

“Right. So, first plan is to get Rommel back. Maybe they’ll lose some power. Then we can rout the Galra with the help of the other lions. Right now the Galra are not too important because they are all robots. They conquered the planet and the very loyal traitors agreed to become ghosts connected to a jewel in order to protect the empire in the future if there was a rebellion. Whenever the rebellion happened a loyal person of royal descent could wake them and they would put down the rebellion. Minor design flaw. There were no loyal royals to awaken them. The Galra were overthrown and part of the fleet went into hiding until now. So if we take down the ghosts we’ll be fine.”

“Uh, Shiana? Minor design flaw in _your_ plan. New Galra ships. And these are new.” Shiana looked at the sky and her blood chilled. Lotor.

“Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. That’s bad. No, no, no, no, no.” She sank into a ball.

“Uh, Shiana?” She shuddered. A small hand put itself on her shoulder.

“Rescuing Rommel is done.” Shiana looked up into the tiny eyes of Princess Rommel.

“Hello, red paladin number 2.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Shh, Bandore, you’re going to give us away.” They snuck through the palace hallways, trying to find the room with the jewel. Bandore had been very opposed to this idea, since it involved taking Rommel into danger, but he’d eventually agreed. Shiana opened a door and there it was. A fiercely glowing gem with a small stain of blood on it. She grabbed it and stomped on it as quickly as she could with her metal boots on. There was a splintering sound and a couple more good jumps crushed the jewel. They heard a haunting scream from upstairs and the sound of people waking up from a deep sleep.

Shiro blinked his eyes and sat up. What… Where… How… Never mind. This had Shiana written all over it in capital letters and he was just going to enjoy being alive. All the other people were waking up, the big cats stretching on all fours. All of the ghosts appeared and they screamed, jumping out of the windows and doors. Shiro turned to grin at his fellow paladins as Shiana ran into the room, followed closely by the prince and princess of one of the remaining refusers. She hugged him before running to Keith, who was lying unconscious on the floor still.

Shiana slipped into Keith’s mind. Everything was dark, but a specter of a grinning slave driver along with a Galra and the man from Keith’s last dream chased him around. She opened her mind and swallowed them up, removing them from his mind. She only wanted to help him, keep the nightmares away. And then Keith jumped right into the connection between them, hurling himself into _her_ mind.

Shiana gasped. She was used to jumping into other’s minds, but having someone jump into hers was unsettling.

Keith almost exploded. Pure mental energy surged around him, and for the first time he saw the mind that seemed well-organized and constantly in his. And it was chaos. Emotions ran everywhere, surging with anger, happiness, regret, sadness. A floating light passed him and he touched it. A scene burst into view, Shiana in a ceremony, others around her brimming with jealousy, Shang and a girl he supposed was Akimi bursting with pride. He wandered around, trying to find Shiana. Was his mind just empty compared to hers? He found her. A sobbing five-year-old in the middle of everything.

Shiro looked at Shiana. She’d been in there an awfully long time and the ghosts were doing something weird. He looked at Keith. He was smoking, looking like he was going to burst into flames. He cursed and went to shake his shoulder. A strong hand gripped his wrist. Their host.

“Do not. He has taken a great risk. He jumped through the mind reader’s link to him and is in danger of imploding. If you touch him he may wake up, but his mind will not be in his body. He will slowly waste away without his spirit and she may be driven mad with two minds in her head.” Shiro gulped and pulled his hand away.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s ok.” Keith cradled a shivering Shiana in his arms. “Shh. It’s okay. I know.”

“I-I just wanted to help,” she wailed, “I never wanted you to see this, never wanted anyone to see this. I just, I feel like there’s a monster in me, every time I think of what happened when you were captured, and it wants to get out, it wants to devour, and I’m trying not to let it, I really am.” Coran had quietly pulled all of the paladins aside to tell the paladins what Shiana had done when she rescued Keith, so he knew what had happened. That she had driven someone mad, that someone still in a containing pod. That she had defeated a small army of robots before blowing up a battle station. For him. This fragile Shiana that she tried to hide was his fault. He had to fix it.

“Hey.” He cupped her face in his hands and wiped away tears with his thumbs. “It’s not your fault. You know it isn’t.”

“But it is. I could have just pulled the answers I wanted out of his head, but I drove him crazy. I didn’t even give them a chance to surrender. I just blew them up.”

“Hey. Don’t start. We both know that it was… that it was my fault. If I hadn’t been so stupid so as to attack the Galra on my own, we would have escaped just fine.” She stood out of his lap indignantly.

“Keith Kogane! _What_ have I told you time after time after time again?!”

“Don’t blame myself for what I didn’t mean to do, things that are out of my control?” He gave her a significant look.

“Oh. Oh. I guess you trapped me in a wormhole of my own logic there. Well played.” He sighed.

“Shiana.” She looked at him questionably.

“Yeees?”

“I’ll tell you my nightmares when they come. If you really think it will help.” She sighed and flopped on her own mind.

“It’s not just to help you. It helps me. It helps me to work people through their problems, to keep my mind off of my own.”

“OK. Well, I’ll tell you my nightmares when I have them. But you _have_ to go to sleep. And if _you_ have a nightmare, you will come and tell me. It doesn’t matter if I’m asleep, if it’s the only sleep I’ve had in a month, you come and tell me, OK?” She hesitated before nodding.

“Yes. Yes, ok, I will. But you better keep your end of the bargain!” He laughed.

“Yes ma’am.”

“OK, let’s get you back to your own mind, because this is disconcerting.” She offered him her hand and he took it. They walked, arms around each others shoulders back into Keith’s mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww, that was cute. Hey Lucy, that was for you! That mind scene was never going to be in there, but I liked that idea, so there you are!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter is great. also, I'm only writing one more after this, because SEASON TWO... Rrrgh. There goes half of my Keith backstory. Although we still don't know how he met Shiro...

“Welcome back, Keith!” Keith blinked up at Shiro. Why were his clothes so warm?

“Dude, you almost imploded!” Hunk, just as excitable as ever.

“Alas, you did not, much to my dismay.”  Lance sighed dramatically and Keith rolled his eyes. Some people never changed.

“Um, guys? You might want to see this.” Pidge was staring out the window. The others rushed over to see what was happening. Outside the ghosts were swarming into one mass, swirling into a human form.

“Alright, team! Time to form Voltron! There can only be one giant formed out of lots of pieces around here!” Shiana shook her head.

“No. Shiro, just, no.” He shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

“I thought it was pretty good.”

“Get out of here, you.” She shoved him gently towards the door and the other paladins followed his run to the lions.

Keith plugged his bayard into the outlet and the sword formed. The ghost-monster formed a whip. It cracked and Keith froze. He jerked the red lion away in time to keep the whip from hitting her, but Voltron fell from the force of his pull.

“Come on Keith, what was that?”

“Sorry.” They rolled away from the whip and clambered to their feet. Crack. The arena. The kitchen. The negotiations room. Crack. Another pull away. This time they didn’t fall, at least.

“Keith, what is the matter with you?! It isn’t going to hurt you!” Everybody started to yell and Keith squeezed his eyes shut. No. He was supposed to be over this. This was supposed to be done. He’d talked out his problems, now it was supposed to be better, right? Everyone was still yelling, and they barely dodged a whip blow. Chaos.

_Keith. Listen to me. I’m the calmest voice you hear. Anchor on me._

_Shiana?_

_In the- well, not flesh, I guess. In the mind. I think because you jumped into my mind we are somewhat connected. By the way, that was a really bad idea. You could have imploded. Anyway, this is taking a_ lot _of energy, so I’ll make this as short as possible. Think of it this way. Yes, he has a whip. But you have a sword. You aren’t helpless anymore. You can hit back. So do it…_ Her voice faded out of his head and Keith took a deep breath.

“Patience. Patience yields focus.” Shiro smiled. Still there. Still an impression he had left on Keith.

“Okay, team! Let’s take this thing down!” A few well-placed swipes of the sword later and the ghost was gone. Forever, hopefully. After that it was easy to take down the remaining Galra. They landed back on the planet, the people cheering. Shiana was out there too, supported by Bandore. Keith smiled. Shiana. Always making friends. A light appeared on the horizon, and people screamed and ran for cover. A spaceship crashed and the paladins ran to it, weapons at the ready. A Neconian stumbled out and kneeled at Shiana’s feet.

“Lady Shiana, the old king is dead! All the other leaders were executed long ago! You are our only leader!” Shiana straightened up, leaving Bandore’s support. She looked every bit as regal and royal as all of the leaders of this planet, maybe even more.

“I understand. I am ready to lead. Rise.” He obeyed, and Bandore helped him back to the castle. Shiana sighed as she watched him go. The paladins stared at her. What was happening?

“Shiana,” Shiro spoke softly, but with authority, “I think it’s time you told us exactly who you are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun, Dun, Duuuuun. That was fun. Very gratifying. I've been waiting a while to do that.

**Author's Note:**

> Aww, poor Keith.


End file.
